Taylor Swift Remembers 9/11 During Acceptance Speech at the VMAs: ‘That’s the Important Thing About Today’

Taylor Swift and Post Malone won best collaboration for their song “Fortnight” at the MTV Video Music Awards on Wednesday night. After receiving her award on stage, Swift started off her acceptance speech by remembering the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

“You are so nice to me. You guys, I wanted to say, waking up this morning in New York on September 11th, I’ve been thinking about what happened 23 years ago,” Swift said on stage. “Everyone who lost a loved one, everyone that we lost, and that’s the most important thing about today — and everything that happens tonight falls behind that. But it’s so amazing to have the opportunity to thank and honor the people who worked so hard with me on this video.”

Swift then spoke directly to her collaborator Post Malone. “There is a very clear reason why Post Malone is everyone in music’s favorite person to collaborate with — and it is because you are so ridiculously talented, you are so versatile and you’re the most down-to-earth person,” Swift said to him. “Honestly so unfailingly polite. It has taken me forever to get him to stop calling me ma’am.”

In addition to winning best collaboration, Swift and Post Malone also nabbed an award for song of the summer for “Fortnight.”

Swift leads the nominations with 12 nods, including video of the year for “Fortnight” and artist of the year. Post Malone trails behind her with 11 nominations, while Ariana Grande, Carpenter and Megan each have seven nods. SZA, meanwhile, has six, and LISA, Teddy Swims and Olivia Rodrigo have four apiece. In addition to performances and awards, Katy Perry is being honored with the MTV Video Vanguard Award, performing a medley of her hits.